@johncarlosbaez I remember the laser physicist Bob...

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@johncarlosbaez
I remember the laser physicist Bob Beyer talking about this project in the 90s, when LIGO was still under development (some of it in a lab that I shared with a mechanical engineer who was designing vibration isolation for the LIGO mirror supports). Even LIGO seemed a bit crazy to me at the time, and LISA seemed completely absurd. It’s exciting to see it gain traction! Fingers crossed our civilization doesn’t collapse before it launches…. 😬

Like 27 January at 19:58 | Wall-to-wall | Open on fediscience.org

3 comments

John Carlos Baez

@jsdodge - in aome ways it's less absurd to do this in space. LIGO is so sensitive it detects logging in nearby forests.

27 January at 21:42 | Open on mathstodon.xyz

Steve Dodge

@johncarlosbaez
Absolutely — but I’m a tabletop experimentalist, so the thought of working out all of the details *before launch* is a bit terrifying!

(cf Hubble mirrors, same era)

27 January at 21:48 | Open on fediscience.org

j_bertolotti

@jsdodge
Yes, my usual approach of "let me put on the table a bunch of optics and fiddle with them until I figure how to change them to make the experiment work" is unlikely to work particularly well here 😉
@johncarlosbaez

28 January at 7:25 | Open on mathstodon.xyz